According to the National Heart Lung Blood Institute, the younger a person is when they first develop high blood pressure, the earlier the damage to their cardiovascular system can start. This is not good news, especially in light of the discovery of researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that 20% of young people have high blood pressure.

In their research, they examined over 14,000 individuals between the ages of 24 and 32 only to find that one in five of these young adults had high blood pressure, even though less than half of them were aware of their problem.

High blood pressure, which is defined as 140/90 or higher, is a contributing factor in both heart disease and strokes, which are the number one and number three leading killers of Americans.

“We were surprised by the figure”, said sociology professor Kathleen Mullan Harris. She said the findings were “alarming, especially since more than half did not know they had high blood pressure”.

This high occurrence of blood pressure has been attributed by some to the rise of obesity in young people, especially since now nearly 30% are obese.

According to Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, 80% of heart disease is preventable and the vast majority of these young adults should be healthy, but they’re not.